Navarrese Carlist military man, author of Vida y hechos de don Tomás de Zumalac rregui (Madrid-Paris, 1845), which covers the three years he was secretary and assistant to the Pretender's General, born in Olite in 1804 and died in Madrid in 1870.
After working in various trades (notary and merchant in Caparroso), he joined a royalist party under the command of General Quesada, with whom he fought the anti-constitutional campaign from 1820 to 1823. From then until 1832, he served as captain in Madrid and Zaragoza in the regiment of which Tom s de Zumalac rregui was colonel, and as secretary to General Santos Ladrón de Cegama. When the Civil War broke out in November 1833, he joined Huralde's Carlist party in Los Arcos (Navarra) and was shortly afterwards appointed as Zumalac rregui's adjutant general. After the latter died in Zegama (Gipuzkoa) after being wounded at the siege of Bilbao in 1835, he took part in the actions of Puente la Reina and Mendigorr a and was promoted to brigadier, and was given the Second Command of Navarre.
After various actions that earned him honors and decorations, he was appointed field marshal for the victory at Larraga. He was interim commander-in-chief of Navarre, replacing General Francisco García. In July 1837, the Captain-General of the Basque Country, Uranga, entrusted Zaratiegui with the command of an auxiliary expedition to Castile in an attempt to catch Espartero, then in Aragon, two fires. He left Galbarn on July 20 with six battalions (two from Navarre, two from Gipuzkoa, one from Valencia and one from Castile) and two cavalry squadrons. After defeating the Portuguese Legion at Zambrana, he entered Castile through La Rioja and Burgos, joining the expedition from Bizkaia under the command of Brigadier Goiri.
Despite the liberal support at the beginning of August, triumphant at Roa and Peñafiel, he entered Segovia, assaulting the city and obtaining the surrender of the fortress, which had been fortified. There he issued coins bearing the effigy of Don Carlos and organized the Segovia Hunters Battalion. He subsequently entered La Granja and triumphantly passed through Burgos (Aranda, Salas de los Infantes, Lerma), entering Valladolid, Tordesillas, Dueñas, and arriving at Medina del Campo. Called by the Pretender to take Madrid, due to internal disturbances within the Carlist forces, they were defeated at Retuerta, and the expeditionary force withdrew to Navarre. Zaratiegui was therefore arrested in Urkiola and imprisoned for several months. Prince Lichnowsky says in this regard:
"An unforgivable negligence, an incredible inertia that presided over all the operations of that time, this was the cause of our losses and not Zaratiegui and Elo, unworthily slandered and unjustly imprisoned when we returned to the Basque provinces."
Released, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Carlos Mar a Isidro with whom, after the Bergara Convention, he lived in exile in France, where he wrote and published his biography of Zumalac rregui. Returning to Spain in 1849 - thanks to an amnesty granted by Isabel II - he was recognized for the ranks he had obtained in the Carlist camp, and was later honored with further honors bestowed upon him by the Queen. In 1868 he was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed Director General of the Civil Guard. After the "Glorious" Revolution of September 1868, already an old man, he offered his services to Carlos VII, who entrusted him with the uprising in Andalusia as Captain General of Seville and Granada, dying before achieving this goal.